Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

Cross-border post package ‘unlikely to deliver’

A LEADING consumer group has launched a detailed attack on European post offices’ latest proposals to shake up their system for sharing out revenues generated by cross-border deliveries.

European Voice

4/22/98, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 3:14 AM CET

The European consumer group BEUC claims that the plans run directly counter to public wishes and are unlikely to provide the promised benefits.

BEUC’s attack, made in a submission to European Commission competition officials, includes a withering assessment of the post offices’ previous attempts to deliver a better service for customers alongside a new charging framework.

The Commission is scrutinising post offices’ latest proposals, the so-called Reims II package, with Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert due to meet top officials today (23 April) to discuss how to proceed.

Post offices have asked for the deal to be given an exemption from competition scrutiny on the basis of the benefits it brings. Its predecessor, Reims I, was refused such clearance by Van Miert after operating partially for more than a year.

Like Reims I, this new settlement aims in principle to create a fairer system for sharing the costs and profits of cross-border deliveries between post offices. In theory, this should give the post office bringing the letter to the door a bigger share of the revenue, in recognition of the fact that two-thirds of all costs are incurred in final delivery. In practice, claims BEUC, post offices are involved in a “false pretence”.

The new share-out is not based on costs, but is worked out according to a complex calculation starting with the price of a stamp in the country where the letter is delivered Both new and old versions of the post office proposals sugar the pill of expected increases in the cost of deliveries by promising to speed up the time taken for letters to reach their final destinations.

However, BEUC’s study of Reims I casts doubt on post offices’ ability to deliver on their pledges of improved quality. It found that while the scheme was in operation in 1996 and 1997, the quality of cross-border letter deliveries fell in seven countries (Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy, Portugal, Greece and the UK) and improved in just six (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Denmark, Austria and Ireland).

“If the evolution of quality is like that in the past, the improvement is clearly insufficient in comparison to the expected price increases,” said BEUC.

The consumer lobby group claims progress is even less likely under the latest proposals since the incentives for quality improvements have been diluted and special terms offered to many national post offices to persuade them to sign them up to the scheme. “This agreement is likely to bring significant disadvantages to European consumers,” it concluded.

BEUC also questions the post offices’ assumption that customers are prepared to pay more for faster delivery. It cites a survey of consumers’ associations showing that only 2% of customers want to pay extra for an improved service, 14% would like to pay less even if this means fewer deliveries, and 82% would prefer to keep postage costs and deliveries at current levels.